From rob@twcny.rr.com Sun Sep 09 15:37:38 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: rob@twcny.rr.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_3_2_1); 9 Sep 2001 22:37:38 -0000 Received: (qmail 8040 invoked from network); 9 Sep 2001 22:37:38 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by l7.egroups.com with QMQP; 9 Sep 2001 22:37:38 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mailout5.nyroc.rr.com) (24.92.226.169) by mta2 with SMTP; 9 Sep 2001 22:37:33 -0000 Received: from mail1.twcny.rr.com (mail1-1 [24.92.226.139]) by mailout5.nyroc.rr.com (8.11.6/Road Runner 1.12) with ESMTP id f89MWLJ09376 for ; Sun, 9 Sep 2001 18:32:21 -0400 (EDT) Received: from riff ([24.92.246.4]) by mail1.twcny.rr.com (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-59787U250000L250000S0V35) with ESMTP id com for ; Sun, 9 Sep 2001 14:00:23 -0400 Received: from rob by riff with local (Exim 3.32 #1 (Debian)) id 15g8tA-0000Ei-00 for ; Sun, 09 Sep 2001 14:01:01 -0400 Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 14:01:00 -0400 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Pronouns in the GNOME translation Message-ID: <20010909140100.A863@twcny.rr.com> Reply-To: rob@twcny.rr.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.20i X-Is-It-Not-Nifty: www.sluggy.com From: Rob Speer As I get farther into the GNOME translation, I'm faced with doubts about which pronouns to use in messages. There are five different situations that come into effect: These cases come from the user choosing items in a menu or a dialog box: 1. The user telling the computer to perform an action (I use ko) 2. The user choosing a setting for what the computer should do, but not immediately (I use zo'e; "Show tasklist arrow" is "selctagau tu'a le samru'e bo liste jesni" ["the tasklist arrow is shown"]). 3. The user telling the computer what he intends to do ("Browse" = "mi sisku") 4. The computer telling the user to perform an action (ko) 5. The computer telling the user what it is doing (So far, I've been using strategically-placed "goi ko'a" the first time the program refers to itself when I have to deal with this) The cases I'm most uncomfortable with are 2 (things which sound like they should be commands get phrased without "ko"), 4 (what if it's not clear which "ko" it is?) and 5 (I'd like a consistent way to refer to whatever program is being interacted with, but 'mi' sounds wrong and would create confusion with 3). I think what I need are some other pronouns which I can use consistently. Perhaps 2 would be done with something like "skami bu"? Any suggestions? -- Rob Speer